The Hawks Sports Network got off the ground during the 2012-2013 school year, when we conceived an idea of using a blog as a central site - dedicated to covering exclusively Hendricken sports - with a number of links to high-traffic social media sites. As The Network evolved, it came to consist of the central blog with links to Facebook, Twitter, Ustream, YouTube, Audioboom, Instagram, and Pinterest, in addition to a link to Hendricken.com's schedule of upcoming athletic events.
The primary idea behind The Network was to begin to offer and expose our students to what is now called the "new media". While mainstream television networks will continue for the foreseeable future to be the most powerful in news coverage, there is now no doubt that the days of the newspaper, periodicals, and the local television news are limited. The internet and the various forms of social media have exponentially opened and are redefining the boundaries and potential of news coverage. While today's young people are quite versed in the use of their mobile devices and various social media accounts, learning to use them to make a greater number of people aware of what's going on in the world and for positive ends can be something else altogether.
Obviously, most young men follow sports, and a significant number of them are familiar with some of the most well-known sportscasters. Our hope is that by being a part of and working with The Network, some of our young men who are already interested in mass media and communications will be even more so, and others may gain an interest in the field. Students are exposed to all facets of the new media experience: video, audio, broadcasting live games, writing articles, doing live sports talk shows, embedding video and audio, editing, and applying Twitter and Instagram in creative ways.
If a student is creative, there's literally no end to what can be done.
And, now, The Network has evolved yet again - the central site is now a fully-functioning website, which even further expands our potential. The Network's links are on the top of the home page, which also consists of the primary viewer for live games and recordings of the most recent contests. With all of the pages of material offered on The Network, fans who might be viewing a game are provided with quite a lot to explore about Hendricken athletics during various breaks and intermissions.
Our kids do a great job. The returning Network team for this year includes Max Zweiner, Bobby Bordieri, Johnathan Feeny, DT Barron, Harrison Tuttle, and Colton Capobianco.
The "Old Network"
"Hawk & the Gang" Episode 1
Student Profiles
Max Zweiner & Johnathan Feeny
Max and Johnathan are two of the returning Network veterans. Max is a junior and is with us for his third year, and Johnathan has been, for the most part, the voice of the basketball team since the Network's inception, which began with a home basketball game against LaSalle in his freshman year.
Max has been invaluable in his time with us, as he has continually volunteered for game assignments or filled in whenever asked. He's worked on play-by-play , camera, and sideline pictures/highlights for football, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, baseball, and even tennis. The Zweiner contributions aren't even limited to Max, as his dad, George ('87 alum) has been beyond gracious in sponsoring and assisting The Network in any way that he can via his ownership of four Dunkin' Donuts franchises in Cranston.
Entering his senior year and fourth as play-by-play man for the Hawks' basketball team, Johnathan has gained a wealth of experience behind the mic and with each contest demonstrates his knowledge of the game. Along with Cam Brennan and Stone Freeman - the two rocks upon which The Network has been built - Johnathan has even had the opportunity to do play-by-play for the local professional basketball team, the Providence Sky Chiefs.
Dylan "DT" Barron
For those who know DT, well...there's not much that can be said here that will add to the legend. Maybe the picture is all you need.
For those of you who don't, let's just say that getting to know DT is to love him.
DT came to The Network several months into his freshman year, and the rest has been, as the saying goes, history. Not only has he volunteered to be a part of as many telecasts as he can, but he also has managed to become an integral part of the 'personality' of The Network. The stories of DT's exploits are the type of stuff that will be told for years in the halls of Hendricken when people talk about the founding years of our sports media.
As he enters his junior year, we here at The Network are going to be asking a lot more of DT, especially now that his two mentors and de facto big brothers, Stone and Cam, have moved on to college. We hope to see DT as one of our mainstays behind the mic, in addition to other duties such as working the camera or working the sidelines for film clips and photos. Hopefully, he'll even write a few more articles for us.
Of course, the one question hanging over everyone's mind at Hendricken this year is this: who will DT pick as his talk show partner? We await The Decision.
Bobby Bordieri
Colton Capobianco
Now entering his senior and third full year as a member of The Network, 'Bobby B' will now be called upon to step into one of the two major pair of shoes that have been vacacted by Cam Brennan and Stone Freeman. Bobby has shown flashes of being one of our frontline play-by-play men during the past year or so, so we're hopeful that he'll grab the opportunity that presents itself. He and Max Zweiner also experienced some success with their free-form talk show last fall, "Maxin' Out with Bobby B".
For some odd reason, Bobby has a fascination with professional sports teams from the great state of Texas, as he is a big fan of the Texas Rangers (why?) and the Dallas Cowboys. To this day, he still maintains that Tony Romo is an elite NFL quarterback, which, of course, has resulted in quite a bit of unnecessary heartbreak for someone so young.
It's a sad story, really.
As a freshman, Colton quickly made a name for himself....though we're honestly not quite sure what that name is. Given that each morning in homeroom he'd immediately engage in sports-related conversation with anyone there as early as he was might lead us, perhaps,to a name such as the 'conversation starter', or, maybe even more radically, "The Party Starter".
That being said, there's absolutely no question that Colton added to The Network's resources by bringing his wealth of sports knowledge to bear on any of our discussions. He also has dabbled in a bit of play-by-play work and has done quite a bit of sideline photography. We hope to see even more from Colton in his sophomore year.
We here at The Network are still wrangling, however, with Colton's being both a diehard member of Red Sox Nation and quite possibly Derek Jeter's single greatest fan. Jeter?
The man deserves great respect. The fervor of Colton's fandom in this case is, though, somewhat perplexing.
